Carolina and I had moved to Florida. We had rented a
small apartment, with a large living room, not far from the
beach, but not close enough to the beach so we could see it.
We were just finishing moving things into the apartment. In the
process my pet Dalmatian Picasso and my pet Dalmatian Chaucer slipped outside and began running around. I didn't want the dogs to run off. I noticed several other dogs
also running loose in the neighborhood, and before I knew
it, my dogs had run off with the others.

I walked outside onto a small
dirt street right behind the apartment, and began looking for my
dogs. It didn't take me long to find both dogs. I caught both of
them in the middle of the street and held onto them. I even
covered Chaucer with a blanket. Meanwhile, a black crow circled
in and landed about 60 centimeters away from us. The crow approached me
as if it were going to try to peck me. I began trying to pull the
cover off of Chaucer so he could protect me from the bird. When I
looked back at the bird, it had turned into a large black dog.
Finally I had to let my dogs go so I could concentrate on
protecting myself from the black dog. My dogs immediately ran off
again, and the black dog likewise ran off.

I started walking again,
realizing I would have to start all over looking for my dogs.
Suddenly a large bird landed on a fence near me. The bird was
about a foot tall and had beautiful blue feathers, outlined in
white. A smaller bird, about the size of a humming bird, flew up
and hovered near the head of the larger bird. Suddenly the
smaller bird squirted some kind of liquid from its beak onto the
larger bird. I realized the two birds were mating, even
though the they looked so different and the one bird was so much
larger than the other. Finally both birds flew away.

All kinds of birds were flying
around the area. One large blue bird, about two foot long, was
floating through the air like a fish might swim through water. I
had never seen such a bird.

I headed on back to the
apartment, walked in, and began talking to Carolina about the
place. This apartment was far inferior to our home in Texas. But
we were only paying $265.00 a month, which I thought was a good
deal. With the money I had, I could live a very long time for
$265.00 a month.

We still hadn't sold our house
in Texas. I would have to return to Texas to sell the house. I
figured I should be able to get about $100,000.00 for the house.
But I was still uncertain about what Carolina and I were going to
do. We had lived in Texas for so long, and Florida was so
different from Texas, I was uncertain we would want to stay
here. At the same time, there was no doubt in my mind that
Florida was a much better place to live than Texas. For one
thing, people in Florida were much more liberal than the people
in Texas. But even though I was happy to be in Florida, I was
apprehensive about leaving Texas because I was so used to Texas.
However, Carolina seemed willing to take the risk, so it looked
as if we were going to stay here in Florida.

Finally I went outside again to
look for my dogs. Hundreds of dogs were running all over the
place. After walking up and down several streets, I spotted
Chaucer on the other side of the street from the apartment. I
went after him, but he kept running away every time I got close.
Finally I caught him, and as heavy as he was, I picked him up in
my arms and began carrying him. As I headed back toward the
apartment, I spotted the beach, which wasn't far away.

I carried Chaucer into the
apartment, locked him inside, then went back out to look for
Picasso. I finally spotted him in the opposite direction from
where I had found Chaucer. Picasso was in a small vacant field
and I had to go down a small hill to reach him. He was running
with several other dogs, and when I finally caught him, a large
brown dog with him grabbed onto the glove which I was wearing on
my hand. Struggling to hold onto Picasso, I couldn't shake the
big brown dog loose.

Finally two men working nearby on a truck, walked over and pulled the brown dog
off me. I was very thankful. I asked one of the men if dogs were
allowed to run free around here. I liked the idea of not having
to have the dogs on a leash, but I was a little taken aback by
the number of dogs running free around here. It
occurred to me that wild dogs might be allowed to run free in
this neighborhood, but that I might end up having to keep my dogs
on a leash. If I didn't do so, my dogs might end up becoming as
wild as the other dogs.

I again thanked the man, and
with Picasso in tow, headed back toward my apartment.